Broom photographed the London suffragette movement and was called the UK’s first female press photographer
Christina Broom was the UK’s first female press photographer. She made more than 40,000 images in her career, was appointed official photographer to some of the most elite divisions of the UK military called the Home Division, and she maintained a popular postcard business for nearly 30 years.
Oh, and she was completely self-taught.
Broom borrowed a box camera and learned photography after her husband was injured in a Cricket match and the family had a series of failed business attempts doing other things. She began with the postcard business, selling from a stall near Buckingham Palace, printing up to 1,000 postcards a night in her darkroom in the coal cellar of her residence.
She is probably best known for her images taken at the raucous suffragette marches in London, where the portrait of her (above) was made.
Broom died in 1939 and is buried in Fulham old cemetery. Her photographs are held in many prestigious museums, including the Museum of London, the National Portrait Gallery, the Imperial War Museum, London, the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin, and many others.
She certainly earned her place among other pioneering British female photographers like Anna Atkins and Julia Margaret Cameron.
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